A report Tuesday showed the obesity rate for Americans hanging (like a gut) again in the low-30s percent, while pointing to the rate climbing to 43 percent by 2018. Obesity is measured at 30 pounds above a healthy weight, and if it rises to the 2018 projection, one-fifth of all health care costs will be related to medical conditions arising from being considerably overweight.
I asked U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, what federal officials can do to reduce obesity at a time when health care reform is being debated in Congress. He said the federal government can push a few things, but said Americans need to take control of their own health.
Said Grassley, a three-mile-per-day jogger: “The answer is yes (for federal action), but not very directly, because you aren’t going to control what people can put into their mouth and whether or not they walk enough and exercise enough or what they eat that is unhealthy.”
Grassley laid out four areas for action: (1) more education to aid healthy living decisionmaking (he cited education being instrumental in reducing smoking rates), (2) having more doctors encouraging preventive medicine when speaking with patients and (3) creating healthier school meals, which is something Iowa’s other senator, Tom Harkin, frequently has worked towards. The fourth Grassley suggestion is Congress creating an opening for health insurance companies to have differing insurance premium costs depending on whether a person is obese.
“I would propose that we have different premium levels for people that don’t have a healthy lifestyle,” Grassley said. “By the way, a Safeway executive has made several appearances on Capitol Hill talking about how his company does that through their health insurance program, where they give people money for first-dollar costs of health care, and they get more money if they have a healthy lifestyle.”
Grassley again relayed his continuing opposition to a soda pop tax, which had at one point this summer been pitched as a means to pay for health reform.
“I’m not convinced that would work, and I am very convinced it is a nuisance tax,” he said.
Life insurance is already more expensive if you’re obese. It makes sense that health insurance would be as well. (I say this as a guy who easily qualifies as obese.)
That said, why is my insurance rate any concern of the government? Isn’t that between my insurer and me?
We don’t need more government solutions. We need less government. Let the free market work itself out. Freedom. Independence.
From a person who generally votes conservative, I have to wonder..what planet has Grassley been on? The medical insurance rates already are adjusted if you are overweight. If you buy your own insurance, not through a large employer, your medical records are reviewed and if you’re a little overweight, your rates cost you more. If you’re more overweight (not even IN the obese category) you get a rider. In South Dakota where I live, there are only two insurance companies to choose from so there’s no competition. They are adjusted if you smoke, they are adjusted as you age. (Mine went up 28% when I turned 55. If you have any other prior conditions, they rider those and you don’t get a lower premium because of it. And if you get a rider, then you have to fight every single visit as the insurance company always finds a way to categorize it to fit into your ridered condition.
We need competition among insurance companies. There are 1800 in the United States that sell insurance. Why is each state restricted to only a few?